On-Site Trainers Are a Money Pit for a Studio's and Company's Training Budget

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If your organization is looking to move to Maya, 3ds Max, NUKE, CINEMA 4D or any creative program and it's searching for an on-site or in-person trainer, it's time to rethink your strategy. Don't make a mistake that will sink thousands to tens of thousands of dollars into an effort with little results and an even smaller return.
Over Digital-Tutors history, and even today, the phone rings for us to come on-site and train artists and designers how to use today's leading creative software. While it made sense back in the day, now it's a drain on an organization's training budget, artists' time and with drastically-decreased results.
"But I like having an on-site trainer who tailors to our needs and my boss can see I'm really trying." The truth is, so can video training and that video training brings with it benefits that will last more than the two-day crash course for your artists.
10 Ways Video Training Trumps On-Site Training:
1. Keeping Cognitive Overload Under Control
Our brains can only handle so much at once. Two-day sessions, usually with only a few breaks, puts a large amount of strain on our brains to try and learn everything presented. With video training, sessions start and stop as individual learners need - letting them watch, learn and practice at a pace more fitting for their learning and at a much higher attention level.
2. Today's Creative Applications are Huge and Powerful - Why Only Spend Two Days Learning Them?
Leading creative application are leaders for a reason: they can do so much and do it all really well. Spending just a few days trying to learn an application won't do the application or your artists justice. With video training, you can learn 24/7/365 and go deeper all year as your artists progress.
Even if there are deadlines to learn the application, "cramming will only help for the test." You can hit your deadline by planning out the training and then have the training still available when issues arise for any artist.
3. Educating New Hires - Yes, Someone Has to!
Imagine you just finished training your team and then any of these happen:
- Your creative director is moving to another shop
- Projects are rolling in and you need to hire three new artists
- A month after an on-site trainer comes, more artists are being brought to your team
The list could keep going, but the results are all the same: one-time, on-site training can handcuff your team when working in the future. With video training, bringing new hires and new artists up to speed has never been easier, more affordable and less strenuous on the rest of the team to help.
4. Software Updates Are Coming. Always.
It's no surprise that software updates are going to happen, but sometimes it's hard to think about that when you're just trying to get your artists up to speed. With video training, like our Digital-Tutors group accounts, your whole team can learn the latest updates to stay on top of changing technology and help your organization create the projects you and your industry expect.
5. Tailored Training for What Your Artists Need to Learn
Even without an on-site trainer, it's not that hard to layout a program for meeting the needs of your training. With Playlists, you can outline which courses and lessons your artists should watch, even creating an entire curriculum as deep and wide as needed to make your training a success.
Now you might not have video training on how to create a historic Spanish ship, but the modeling, texturing and rendering training to learn the elements needed are all just waiting for your team.
See how you can try Digital-Tutors video training in your organization for free >6. True Visibility Into What Each Artist is Learning
A great aspect of most established video training options includes some form of reports. This let's you see who is and isn't watching training, but also with Quizzes and Tests, who is and isn't learning the material. This not only lets you stay on top of the struggling artists, but also gives you confidence knowing who is learning it correctly.
With the quiz and test system, your artists also get remediation with feedback on what they should watch again to learn anything they may have missed.
7. Project Files Are So Underrated
Project files always seem like a given, but with an on-site trainer what happens in three weeks when a new problem comes up? Even creating the assets just to practice can cause strain on your artists. With video training and the project files for each course, you save valuable time practicing hands-on with the files you need and then applying what you learn to the real project.
8. Instant Help and No Awkward Goodbyes
Today's creative pipelines are more advanced and robust than ever before. But any little hiccup can cause ripples in work and deadlines. So is bringing on a new application even worth it after scaring you like we just did? Definitely.
The trick is knowing with access to video training anytime you need it, you can troubleshoot the issue with industry-proven training and keep everything on schedule - and your work looking better than ever before. With an on-site trainer, there is no such luxury. After the session it's going to take emails, calls and more money before any help might come your way.
9. Don't Limit Yourself to One Application
In today's creative industries, not much is done with just one application and more and more smaller applications are bringing powerful tools that shouldn't be ignored - saving time and adding quality.
With access to video training on more than just the on-site session, your team can evaluate what software makes sense to add next. Then, instead of the emails and dollar figure exchanges, training on that software is instantly available through the video training.
10. Stopping Your Next Project's "How Do We Even Do That?" Before it Starts
What was industry-leading or cutting edge last month, has probably followed suit with Rebecca Black (or insert irrelevant YouTube 15-minuter of fame). The last thing you want to do is limit what your artists are capable of doing simply because you're not sure how to do it.
With video training on over 60 leading creative applications (initialize a little tooting of our own horn) and the same training used in top creative organizations, you can rely on training that makes your next project a "we've got this" instead of a "how'd they do that."
Even without Digital-Tutors, video training in general is a great solution to learning what it will take to get a grasp of a future project and not limit your team.
How can you integrate video training into your organization? We've made it easy.
Try Digital-Tutors video training in your organization for free >
Explore what's possible with a Digital-Tutors group account and see how adding the world's largest creative training library can help your artists learn Maya, 3ds Max, NUKE, CINEMA 4D and so much more now and into the future.
Our group accounts are even used inside some of the software companies - helping them train their own staff.